You Buddha Believe it

Posted by on Nov 2, 2011 in Travel Volunteer Journey, Wakayama | 2 Comments
You Buddha Believe it

You wait a month for a UNESCO World Heritage site, and then three come along at once, or in the space of a week, at least.
Today we were in Koya-san, a holy site for Buddhists of the Shingon sect. A place of worship for over 1200 years, it was founded by the enigmatic Kukai, a religious scholar who, unsatisfied with the level of Buddhist study available to him in his native Japan, took a government-sponsored expedition to China. He spent two years meditating and praying hard, at which point – and here history and legend seem to intermingle, as they so often do in religious tales – he threw a vajra (a small religious artefact) all the way back to Japan, vowing to build his own version of Shangri-la wherever it landed. To use the American vernacular: the kid had a good arm.

Conveniently, it landed on Mount Koya, where plenty of real estate was available. Not only that, but the Emperor temporarily released Kukai from his state duties to build the religious retreat. Kukai oversaw its founding and growth, but didn’t quite get to see its completion. At the age of 61, legend says he went into a state of “permanent meditation” which in some societies is also known as “death”. Perhaps the confusion arose from his breaking of convention by requesting not to be cremated, but to be interred at a mausoleum in the grounds of his sacred city.

Today, Mount Koya a kind of Mecca for Shingonites, who make long pilgramages to worship here. Unlike the Shintoists at Ise, they’re well catered for. There are said to be 1200 religious structures located at Koya-san, ranging from small pagodas to palatial temples. Unsurprisingly, the most ornate is the one that lies just in front of Kukai’s resting place/meditation area.
There are reds and burgundys in the main temple beautiful enough to make you weep, but unfortunately they’re off limits for photographers. That’s understandable: who wants their moment of tranquillity spoiled by popping flashes and clicking shutters? Still, it seems a pity that we can’t capture the rich beauty, or the candles and wafting incense because of the rules. Maybe that’s just as well though: the monk who was running a holy Hoover over one of the rugs inside would only have ruined our shots (what he was doing to some of the worshippers’ concentration I can only guess).
The buzzing motor seemed hideously out of place because the rest is all so genuinely peaceful. A lot of irreligious people say that of all organised faiths, they admire Buddhists the most, giving them a metaphorical pat on the head and stopping well short of genuinely agreeing with the more fanciful beliefs. And while history tells us it’s not always been about peace, patience and love, there is, in general, a serenity found in places of Buddhist worship that you rarely find in Christianity, and even more scarcely in Islam.

Anyway, the entire area around here is extremely calming, most likely the result of it being a colossal graveyard. Kukai is perhaps the only person actually buried here, but there are countless headstones marking the lives of others. Most of them are a pretty exclusive bunch: in terms of deceased Japanese people, this is the Beverly Hills or Mulholland Drive of the afterlife.
It’s not just people who are remembered here, though: there are shrines to all kinds of dead things, including an unlikely one to dead termites, erected by a pest-control company. Other firms have set up large memorials, logos and all, to their past employees. At times the whole thing feels like a macabre corporate-bonding exercise.

Better than the shiny, new stones, though are the aging monoliths that the forest has started to claim for its own. To us it doesn’t matter what the legends say, or how much money a person had while alive: watching the slow march of nature is strangely beautiful.

 

ユネスコ世界遺産、やはり機会があれば訪れてみたいと思っていたら、この1週間になんと3か所も行かせてもらう事ができた。

そう今日は和歌山県にある真言宗総本山のある高野山を訪れた。1200年以上前、空海は日本での学問や修行に満足できず、留学僧として中国に渡った。2年間多くを中国で多くを学んだ後(その部分に関しては、歴史や伝説にありがちなように不明瞭な点は多いようだが・・・)日本に戻ってきた。そしてここ高野山で新たな教えを説いたのだ。
好都合なことに、高野山には広大な敷地があり、また時の天皇が彼に任務を離れて高野山に仏教の桃源郷を作る事を支援したのだ。空海はこの場所が最適だと強く信じてはいたものの、完成した姿はほとんど目にしていないと言われている。なぜなら彼は61歳以降、永遠の禅定(私のような凡人でいうところの“死”である)に入っているからだ。これに諸説あるが、この高野山に彼の魂が宿っている事は間違えないであろう。

今日、高野山は真言宗のメッカのような存在で多くの人が巡礼にやってきている。
高野山には1200を超える宗教組織があり、それは塔だけを持つものから、巨大な宮殿のようなお寺を持つものまで、大小様々だ。そして予想通り、その中で最も豪華なものは空海が禅定をしている場所の前にあるものだ。

本堂は赤やワイン色で美しく彩られていたが、残念ながら写真撮影は禁止されており、ここで皆さんにご覧いただく事はできない。まあ当然と言えば当然だ。この静寂な場でカメラのフラッシュが“ぱしゃぱしゃ”していたら、雰囲気は台無しだからだ。
とは言え、ろうそくの光とお香につつまれたこの美しさを写真に納める事ができないなんて、本当に残念だ。だがそう思っているのは私達だけかもしれない。なぜなら・・・その奥では忙しそうに掃除機をかける音が聞こえたからだ。神聖な場所に不釣り合いな機械的な音は、なんだか妙だった。

多くの無宗教者は、数ある信仰の中で仏教に最も共感すると言われている。歴史が語るように、宗教はいつも平和や忍耐、そして愛を教えているわけではない。仏教に見る事ができるこの平静さは、キリスト教やイスラム教では珍しいものだからだ。

ともかく、ここ高野山は本当に静寂に包まれていて美しい場所だ。言い方によれば、巨大な墓地のようでもあるかもしれない。実際にここに埋葬されているのは空海だけなのかもしれないが、多くに“生命のあかし”が残されている。もしかしたら高野山は亡くなった日本人の人々にとっての“ビバリーヒルズ”や“マルホランド・ドライブ”なのかもしれない。

そしてここに永遠の命を預けているのは人間だけではないようだ。そう、多くの廟は人間以外のものを祭っている。例えば白アリを祭るそれは害虫駆除会社によって作られているし、他の会社は過去の社員の名前を祭っている。それらはまるで死後の企業活動のようだ。

新しく光り輝く石よりも、昔からここにあっただろう年老いた石柱のほうが美しい。
私達にとっては伝説が何と言っていようと、その人が生きている時にどれだけ豊かな人であろうと、これだけゆっくりと時が流れている事、それが何より美しい。

2 Comments

  1. Jennifer Lim
    November 3, 2011

    very very appetizing title. lol made my day.

  2. woody
    November 12, 2011

    Is that a shinrei shashin? Seems something ghostly in front of the steps. I have been to Koya 3 times. Love to take pics there. What camera are you using?